A Princess's Second Romance

The romances of royalty are as tragic as those with which Anthony Hope has filled the imaginary realm of Ruritania. Princess Stephanie, a daughter of the King of the Belgians, in the bloom of early youth became the wife of Archduke Rudolf, the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary. She seemed destined to be an empress, but her life in Vienna has been overshadowed with unhappiness. The tragic death of the Crown Prince left her a widow with a young daughter to be educated in the stateliest but most gloomy court in Europe.

The Princess at 35 has entered upon her second romance. Her marriage to Count Elemer Lonyay involved the sacrifice of her royal rank and complete separation from her daughter, who has reached the age of 16. The King of the Belgians and the Emperor of Austria each attempted to dissuade the Princess from this second marriage, but she had fallen in love with the Hungarian Count, and chose to take her leave of a court where she has never been happy, and to leave behind her daughter, to whom she is devotedly attached. At the marriage, which took place in March, neither her royal father nor her imperial father-in-law was present. Etiquette forbade them to assist at the ceremony. But the Countess has not forfeited their love or their esteem.

The Count is of noble, but not of royal, birth. He has estates in Hungary, and is a diplomatist who has been connected with the Austrian embassies at several European courts. Royal etiquette is rigid and without sentiment. The Crown Princess, who had expected to be an Empress, divested herself of royal rank and privilege when she became a Countess. She can never again meet on terms of equality her own daughter, who is a great figure at the Austrian court, and is to marry a King's son. Yet she has exchanged a life which had become a perpetual tragedy for one that promises happiness, and every one who knows her wishes her happiness in the fullest measure.